Pages

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ya. Ya. You can call me uncool, backdated, slow... whatever... for being the only person who has not heard about Studio Ghibli before but I guess its better late than never, right? Anyway, while I was on holiday with hubs at Lipe Island, the resort we stayed in kept repeating an animated film titled 'Howl's Moving Castle'. Of course, hubs and I were too busy exploring the island so we didn't really get to watch the whole movie but whatever we saw roused our interest enough to scout around town looking for a copy of the DVD the minute we got back to KL.

I managed to get a copy of the movie and I think the effort of looking high and low for the DVD was really worth it! Howl's Moving Castle is one in a million. It's the latest addition in my 'I Like' category on Get Glue (LOL) and definitely the latest on my list of things to rave about to my friends.

Howl's Moving Castle is based on a young adult fantasy book by British author Dianne Wynn Jones. The story revolves around Sophie Hatter who encounters a young wizard called Howl by chance. The chance encounter made the Witch of the Waste (who also has the hots for Howl) jealous enough to put a curse on Sophie and turn her into an old woman. With the curse upon her, Sophie embarks on a magical journey in her effort to break the curse.

I absolutely loved Howl's Moving Castle. The characters were unique, the storyline was one of a kind and Sophie's adventures were truly magical. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The voice-over cast has quite an impressive list of actors like Christian Bale, Billy Crystal and Jean Simmons. I intend to purchase a copy of the original book just to see the difference between the book and the movie. Here's a trailer of the movie if you're interested:

Since I liked Howl's Moving Castle so much, I decided to get copies of other movies produced by Studio Ghibli. The other movie that I've seen is Spirited Away. Personally, I thought that it was not as good as Howl's Moving Castle but it was still an enjoyable movie to watch. Here's the trailer for your viewing:

I can't wait to watch the rest of the Studio Ghibli movies. I hope all their movies are as good as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away.

If you've seen a Studio Ghibli production, which one is your personal favourite?